Michael Schumacher - How many of you know this incident?
By jayarajgr
@jayarajgr (816)
India
January 21, 2007 5:04pm CST
The year was 1997. The last race of the year was in Jerez. Two drivers were in close contention for the championship. Michael Schumacher with 78 points and Jack Villenueve with 77 points. Villanueve had to finish ahead of Schumi to win the championship, that was the pre race situation.
Villenueve was in the pole position during qualification and Schumi was second. But when the race started Schumi took the lead. This remained like that till the 48th lap, when Villenueve tried to overtake Schumi. Schumacher abrubtly turned to the left hitting the left side of the Williams. Schumi retired instantly and Villenueve had to limp from there on to complete the race. He got the championship, but Schumacher was disqualified from that years points and stripped off his second place.
Ironically, Schumacher himself later accepted that it was intentional. Now tell me, what do you think about his sporting spirit?
1 person likes this
9 responses
@LightninStrike (5915)
• Saint Vincent And The Grenadines
12 Feb 07
I watched the race....and what Schummi did was obviously intentional, it was ugly.
I think Michael is probably the best pilot we've had so far (hope Alonso changes that lol) but he has done things sometimes that have stained his reputation.
He did something similar with Damon Hill, but that time he didnt get punished for it and he won the championship, which was a shame.
I will always say that Michael was a super pilot and a champion, but he lost his nerves now and then.
1 person likes this
@jayarajgr (816)
• India
13 Feb 07
thats it. He is good, but not the best. He won a lot of championships simply because of the superior car he had. In the last two years, Alonso, with a not so superior car, defeated him well and thorough.
@apostrofy (661)
• Romania
23 Jan 07
i actually saw the race, and i didn't knew until now that he was stripped off his second place. at that moment schumi said he didn't see villeneve comming because the mirrors are too small. did i believe him? did anyone believed him? hell no. but that was his charm, or part of his charm. he took a risk, he loved to do it because he always did something on the edge. does that make him less of a champion? sure as hell no. noone else achieved what he did, and let's face it, he's loved because of that and because of his guts.
1 person likes this
@jayarajgr (816)
• India
23 Jan 07
what I wanted to say was this. He was often cunning and ready to go to any extend to succeed. I cant consider that as sportsmanspirit. He got the right punishment that year. But several times he escaped punishment simply because of his image.
@jayarajgr (816)
• India
21 Jan 07
There is one more incident I wanted to add. In 1994, at the British Grand prix, Schumacher was penalised for overtaking during the formation lap. He ignored the penalty and was later black flagged and then given a two race ban.
1 person likes this
@aravindganesh79 (140)
• India
27 Feb 07
He is great rider i ever seen in formula one..and i dont like kimi raikkonen he is not a genious as compared to michel..ha ha
@liana_pescarus (1168)
•
28 May 07
i remember the incident. but come on!!! wouldn't you have done the same? try absolutely ANYTHING to win, when you're so close?
@allanmetante (21)
• Philippines
11 Jun 07
it's true when you think that schumi is a man of course he will and even me i will do the same for trying to win... does anyone can say that he will not do that to win if he has the same opportunity to do?
@kjaonline (31)
• Philippines
3 Apr 07
Some people do everything that it takes to get what they want.. Maybe Schumi went a little too far..
@saivenkaat802003 (4823)
• India
11 Jul 07
I dont know about this incident,but my regard and high esteem that i had for him in my heart has certainly decreased a bit. But i know that Ralf Schumacher is famous for his intentional behaviours of slammming his car during overtaking efforts..
@Rikblak (26)
•
27 Oct 07
I remember it well, I believe I am right in saying that this race was also Mika Hakkinens first race win.
As for the incident itself it was nothing new in F1 indeed Schumacher did something similar in 1994 in Australia to Damon Hill. That time he won the championship and Nigel Mansell went on to win the race.
There was also a very similar incident a few years before between Senna and Prost.
This all goes to show that the most competitive drivers are likely to stop at nothing to win. The only difference these days is that the cars are so safe they can get away with no injuries and that now the stewards are prepared to penalise bad driving.
